READ. EXPLORE. CREATE.

It started as Libraries...moved to Media Centers...and coming soon to a school near you....﻿Learning Commons.﻿

At Hayes, we've never had a problem getting people to come to see us - regardless of what our space is called. CCSD is moving toward the Learning Commons model in all of its schools. This is modeled after the Learning Commons that students use in colleges and universities. It's more of a one-stop-shop to meet many different needs. The traditional library is a subset of the overall Learning Commons. The key is FLEXBLE

Mrs. Kent recently went on a field trip with other media specialists and administrators in Cobb to visit Learning Commons sites at various schools in Gwinnett County. Here are the biggest changes that you'll see at Hayes:

Mobile furniture & shelving

More soft seating

Computer "cloud"

More open floor space

Fewer books

Maker spaces

One of my professional responsibilities as a media specialist is to weed the library's collection. I don't like doing away with books any more than you do; however, it IS a vital part of the care & feeding of any library collection. CCSD has an established procedure that media specialists must follow to discard library media materials. Some of the discarded books are made available to teachers for their classroom libraries. The remaining books are collected by an outside contractor who disposes of the remaining items per the terms of its contract with CCSD. My focus for the remainder of this school year is in weeding specific sections of the library that will be affected by the removal of several bookcases to open up the library's floor space.

You may have noticed that the public library is now starting to feature Maker Spaces. This can range from simple arts & crafts to writing computer code or building lego models. It's hands-on learning. Crafty S.T.E.M. actitivies we did this year in club are an example what can be done in a maker space.. It also tends to get messy. So be prepared! You might find this article from Library Media Connection to make for interesting reading on the topic.